Tuesday October 31
Spe salvi: we are saved in hope. Hope strengthens us to face our present struggles and embrace what the future brings. Let us listen to Pope Benedict XVI who wrote an encyclical on the theme of hope:
“[W]e see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language, we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel: is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.” (Spe Salvi, #2)
